The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 brings digital-asset platforms and tokenised-custody platforms inside Chapter 7 of Australia's Corporations Act, regulating them as financial products under the existing AFSL (Australian Financial Services Licence) regime supervised by ASIC. Treasury released exposure-draft legislation on 25 September 2025; the Bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on 26 November 2025 (Allens analysis). Reports from early 2026 indicate the Bill passed Parliament on 1 April 2026 and received Royal Assent on 8 April 2026 (Gilbert + Tobin analysis). Australia's design avoids a stand-alone digital-assets statute and extends the AFSL framework with two new financial-product categories.

Scope

The Bill creates two new financial-product categories. A Digital Asset Platform (DAP) is a facility where an operator holds digital tokens in trust for clients, with the regulated activity centred on possession or control of tokens rather than the underlying asset characteristics. A Tokenised Custody Platform (TCP) is a facility where an operator creates digital tokens representing redemption rights to underlying assets (cash, securities, commodities, or other property), with the operator holding those assets in trust for token holders (Allens analysis).

A "digital token" is an electronic record where persons can exclude others from controlling it, transfer or dispose of it, and identify themselves as doing so. The definition is technology-neutral.

The framework applies to operators of these platforms. It does not directly regulate digital-asset issuers or businesses using digital assets for non-financial purposes. Stablecoin issuance, securities-token issuance, and tokenised-fund issuance continue under their respective issuance frameworks; the Bill regulates the platform layer through which clients access those instruments.

Low-risk operators are exempt: platforms holding less than AUD 5,000 per customer and processing under AUD 10 million in annual transaction volume sit outside the licensing requirement (Gilbert + Tobin analysis).

Mechanics

DAP and TCP operators must obtain an AFSL and comply with existing financial-services general obligations: efficient, honest, and fair conduct; adequate resources and risk-management systems; supervision arrangements; dispute-resolution processes; and compensation. ASIC will issue tailored standards covering capital adequacy, custody conduct, asset-holding rules, and settlement standards.

The Bill carves out the standard Product Disclosure Statement requirements under Part 7.9 of the Corporations Act for DAPs and TCPs. Providers instead give clients a tailored "DAP/TCP Guide" calibrated to the digital-asset context.

Custody rules require operators to hold client digital tokens (DAP) or underlying assets (TCP) in trust, segregated from operator assets. ASIC will set asset-holding standards through legislative instruments, with the explicit goal of producing a consistent level of protection regardless of whether assets are held through a DAP, a TCP, or a traditional custodial arrangement.

Transition arrangements provide that for the first six months from commencement the DAP and TCP amendments do not apply to providers without an AFSL. If a provider has applied to ASIC, the amendments do not apply until the day after ASIC makes a decision. The Bills Digest references an 18-month total compliance window (Parliament of Australia bills digest).

Status

Pending commencement as of late April 2026. The Bill received Royal Assent on 8 April 2026 according to industry reporting, with commencement set by proclamation. ASIC is expected to publish the asset-holding standards and DAP/TCP Guide content requirements through legislative instruments in advance of commencement. The transitional provisions mean the operative effect on existing crypto-exchange operators and custody providers will roll out through 2026 and into 2027.

The Bill does not address stablecoin issuance directly. Australia's stablecoin perimeter remains under separate work led by Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), with public signals pointing to a payment-stablecoin framework that would slot alongside the DAP/TCP architecture rather than into it.

Implications for tokenisation

For an Australian crypto-exchange operator, the Bill is the load-bearing change. An exchange with custody of client tokens is a DAP, requiring an AFSL with asset-holding standards layered on top. For operators already holding an AFSL, the marginal cost is the digital-asset-specific overlays. For operators without an AFSL, the licensing process and underlying capital, governance, and conduct obligations are a step-change uplift.

For a tokenised-asset issuer, the TCP category is the operationally relevant piece. A platform issuing tokenised representations of off-chain assets (real estate, fund interests, commodities) operates as a TCP and must hold underlying assets in trust under ASIC's asset-holding standards. That puts Australia closer to the MAS licensed-trustee anchored route Singapore uses for tokenised funds than to the more permissive frameworks in Hong Kong or Switzerland.

The AFSL anchoring is the institutional credibility lever. AFSL-holding entities are familiar to Australian treasury teams and superannuation funds, which have been reluctant to engage with non-AFSL operators. The regime gives Australian institutional capital a regulated route into tokenised products without a stand-alone digital-asset statute.

For agentic commerce, the framework does not address AI agents directly. The custody-and-segregation focus of the DAP definition is compatible with agent-mediated holdings provided the operator can identify the client.

Open questions

• The substantive content of ASIC's asset-holding standards, custody-conduct rules, and DAP/TCP Guide requirements, which are due through legislative instruments before commencement.
• Treatment of foreign-issued stablecoins distributed through Australian DAPs once Australia's stablecoin framework is published, and whether comparability provisions will track the GENIUS Act foreign-issuer test.
• The boundary between DAP and TCP for hybrid platforms that custody both native digital assets and tokenised real-world asset representations.
• Interaction with the existing Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and the AUSTRAC registration regime that already covers digital-currency exchanges.